He only got 12 months anyway. The man who slashed at man for burning the koran ourside the Turkish embassy got away with a short sentence suspended.
From the Telegraph here and here
I’ll deal with the second one first.
A man has avoided jail after violently attacking a protester who was burning a Koran outside the Turkish consulate in London.
Hamit Coskun, 51, shouted “f— Islam” and “Islam is religion of terrorism” as he held a flaming Islamic text aloft during a protest in Knightsbridge in February.
Moussa Kadri, 59, from Kensington, emerged from a residential building and told the protester “I’m going to kill you”, before slashing at him with a bread knife, prosecutors said. He later told police he was protecting his religion, Southwark Crown Court heard.
Judge Adam Hiddleston handed Kadri a 20-week prison sentence, suspended for 18 months on Tuesday. He must carry out 150 hours of work, 10 days of rehabilitation activity and pay £150 in court costs.
The judge said that the way Kadri lost his temper was “disgraceful”, adding: “Use of blades is a curse on our community. . . The knife could have caused serious injury, even if you never had any intention to stab him, your actions were wholly unacceptable. When armed with a knife, there is always a possibility of serious injury or death…” The judge saw no reason for an immediate custodial sentence having observed the mitigation and accepted his remorse.
Meanwhile in Epping a girl of 14 now looks over her shoulder all the time and feels vulnerable when wearing a skirt, and a young woman is nervous to leave her house,
The Home Office may struggle to deport immediately the Epping hotel asylum seeker jailed for sex assaults despite having new powers to do so.
Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, an Ethiopian who arrived in the UK on a small boat days before the incidents, was sentenced to 12 months in prison on Tuesday for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman.
His arrest provoked protests and counter-demonstrations outside The Bell Hotel in Epping, where he had been living as an asylum seeker.
And in a personal statement to the court, his teenage victim said she now felt “vulnerable and exposed” when wearing a skirt because of the assault.
New legal powers, which took effect on the day Kebatu was jailed, enable the Home Office to deport him back to Ethiopia without having to return to prison in Britain.
Given the amount of time that Kebatu has spent in prison since he was remanded into custody on July 10, he has passed the 30 per cent mark, making him eligible for automatic immediate deportation to Ethiopia. However, the UK has no formal returns agreement with Ethiopia. Home Office figures show just one Ethiopian offender was deported to the country in 2024, followed by two Ethiopian criminals in the first six months of this year. Home Office advice on Ethiopia also says some regions are considered “unsafe” and that claimants could seek to block their removal on the grounds of persecution or family life under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
The asylum seeker had previously been found guilty of five offences after a three-day trial at Chelmsford and Colchester magistrates’ courts.
The 38-year-old told two teenagers he wanted to “have a baby with each of them” and attempted to kiss them, before putting his hand on one of the girls’ thighs and stroking her hair, his trial was told. He was also found to have sexually assaulted a woman by trying to kiss her, putting his hand on her leg and telling her she was pretty.
District Judge Christopher Williams found Kebatu guilty of two counts of sexual assault, one count of attempted sexual assault, one count of inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity and one count of harassment without violence.
In a victim personal statement, the 14-year-old girl said “Every time I go out with my friends, I’m checking over my shoulder. Wearing a skirt now makes me feel vulnerable and exposed.”
“You knew full well she was only 14 years of age,” the judge said to Kebatu. “Not only had she told you this, her friends were wearing school uniform.”
He added that he could not suspend the 12-month prison sentence because there was “no realistic prospect” of him being rehabilitated. “You pose a significant risk of reoffending,” the judge said.
The woman who was sexually assaulted (said) in her victim’s personal statement, “Since the incident, I feel both angered and frustrated. He did not even appear to know that what he’s done was wrong. The incident has left me feeling worried to leave my house. I think about this incident most nights before bed.”
Judge Williams said he agreed with the author of a pre-sentence report that Kebatu was “manipulative” when interviewed by a probation officer.
“That report indicates you were very reluctant to speak about the offending,” the judge told Chelmsford magistrates’ court. It suggests you raised a lack of English and mental health difficulties as reasons why you either can’t remember what happened or cannot talk about the offending. The probation officer didn’t consider this was accurate and considered you were being manipulative. I agree with that assessment.”
Counsel for the prosecution said “There’s also comments made by Mr Kebatu when he stated he didn’t know the UK was so strict even though he knew the Ethiopian age of consent was 18.”
